This is the first hike I have scheduled for this year's Appalachian Trail Conservancy's Biennial event. Situated in Winchester, Virginia, this year's event is close to Harpers Ferry, Shenandoah National Park and the AT as it touches four states in the area.On the AT at the WV-VA line and roughly 20 miles south is a section known as the "Roller Coaster" It is low elevation, near the Shenandoah River. Its profile looks like an evenly spaced hilly roller coaster.
Our hike with about 20 on board, have to sit in our cars for about 45 minutes while a thunderstorm passes through. Finally, after 10am, we begin hiking in very humid conditions. The storm had cooled things off but that did not last long. We were in for a long hot day with temperature topping out at about 95 degrees. All creeks were a little murky with the early morning storm's water. Our first stop of note was a short spur to a small waterfall. We did have one rock overlook with a limited view. Otherwise we were hiking up and down all day.
Everyone was feeling the heat an humidity. One older gentleman was of concern to our hike sweep. She kept pestering him with questions about water and how he was feeling. Bob seemed annoyed at the questions. He must have had water inside his pack as there was no visible bottles or bladder.
We made a late lunch stop at a shelter and had to wait a good 30 minutes before Bob and the sweep showed up. I learned there was a plan to hike Bob out on a spur trail to a nearby road and wait for the rest of us to finish and meet up. I volunteered to walk behind Bob at his pace over the next couple hills to the spur. We walked slowly but he was very methodical and not sloppy. After an hour we reached the spur and Bob was having none of the spur out. I thought he could make the full hike but I was tiring walking at his pace and needed to walk at my own pace as I was suffering too.
Our leaders told us to stop and wait at the next stream crossing. We did for a good 20 minutes. Everyone was suffering and I didn't think it was a good idea to keep our bodies idling so long. Several of us headed up the final hill.
Once at the top, we were rewarded with the view above. Nearby is the Bear's Den hostel. We waited about an hour for the final stragglers to arrive. A gal from Texas with sneakers had bonked on this last section and really struggled.
Bear's Den Hostel was a private home built in 1930. The ATC acquired the property and the trail corridor in more recent years. Now it is the fanciest hostel I have ever seen.
After shuttles and the ride back, it is 6:30 before I get back to Winchester. That 6.7 mile section took us about 6.7 hours to hike.
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